Here’s how Gold Key does Plant Monsters in the Bronze Age. Most of these appeared in Boris Karloff’s horror comic but you can find others in a few Gold Key comics such as The Mighty Samson and their Star Trek comic. The wily plants aren’t all that much different than what was done in the Golden Age but decades of Silver Age Science Fiction plants make these a welcome revival. Oddly, most of the authors are unknown, something that was less common in the Bronze Age.
“Terror in the Green House” (Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery #36, August 1971) retells a story we know well from H. G. Wells and after. Jeffrey Gordon is an amateur botanist. He raises gigantic versions of Venus flytraps. His wife hates his experiments. When Jeff starts feeding hamsters to the giant plant, she tries to stop him. Martha goes back to the greenhouse in the night and finds the plant has taken over. Jeff finds her and is swallowed by the plant, saving her. He manages to break the greenhouse window. Martha kills all the remaining plants. Jeff’s funeral notice clearly says “Do not send flowers”.
“Old Trees Never Die” (Grimm’s Ghost Stories #11, August 1973) begins with millionaire Walter Mercer buying a classy new home. The water supply gets cut off by plant roots. What makes this unusual is the roots are from a dead apple tree. The gardener calls them “ghost roots”. Walter decides he will remove the tree himself with a chainsaw. Unfortunately the tree is practically stone after decades of sitting there. Walter’s chainsaw is useless. The tree retaliates by bombarding the house with apples. Walter blows it up with dynamite. In the night the roots come for Walter. They bury Walter next to the stump.
“Daddy’s Little Pet” (Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery #49, August 1973) has Prof. H. K. Robindale, the first plant psychologist being interviewed by a TV reporter. Robindale shows the audience a recordable reaction when he attacks a plant with a pair of scissors. The professor’s real pride and joy is a Suzura plant from the Kurile Islands. He plans to teach “Suzyums” grade three Math. Suzyums has other ideas. She grabs the scientist and threatens to “crush his flabby torso” if he doesn’t leave her alone. The professor shushes the reporter, holding up a sign: “Do not talk to the plants!”
“Tender Feelings” (Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery #53, April 1974) has three bank robbers, Bradley, Rift and Hanley out in the swamp hiding after a big heist. A strange plant creatures enters the cabin. It has a mind-controlling power. The men give it their jackets. It takes half of their money. The brain-control fades. They want their money back. They look for it in the swamp. Again, they wake up from a spell. The thing has manipulated their feelings and taken their guns. The three decide to use the other half of the money as bait. This time they end up in quicksand. Who was really baiting a trap?
“The Symbiont Factor” (Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery #54, June 1974) was written by John Warner. Eric Porter shows his brother and financial supporter, Matthew, his new invention. It is a machine that will prove Eric’s theory, that all living things have a partner to which they are linked. He calls them “symbionts”. Whatever happens to A affects B. The two men use a helicopter to locate Eric’s symbiont. It is a weird plant monster that looks like Eric. The monster attacks them. They flee, then use dynamite to stop it. The monster destroyed, Eric falls down dead. Matthew doesn’t know what they could have done. And at least, Eric proved his theory!
“Forbidden Fruit” (Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery #56, August 1974) begins with Ed Muller coming back from the Amazon with a new specimen. He and his daughter, Cory, are botanists. Ed is happy to see his plants again, especially his vines. The new specimen takes up much of Ed’s time and Cory is a little jealous. Later when the weird bag-like fruit open, strange humanoid monsters come out to attack the scientists. They flee and are saved by the vines, that strangle the weird fruit monsters.
“No Thing Is My Enemy” (Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery #65, December 1975) introduces Grace and Claude Harvey. When they see a shooting star, Claude wishes his mom would find a new husband. Grace wishes Claude would have a new father. The shooting star proves to be a meteorite. Claude takes seeds from the fallen object and grows strange, ugly plants. His mom tries to kill them but Claude plants one surviving plant in the greenhouse. It grows and becomes able to walk. Claude becomes frightened of the plant and goes for a flame-thrower. He gets knocked out and the flame-thrower starts a fire. The alien plant rescues him, sacrificing itself. The handsome Herb Leonard from the university shows up and maybe both mom and son will get their wishes.
“Seeds of Treachery” (Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery #76, August 1977) was the only plant monster story worthy of a cover. Sir Geoffrey Frobisher is on his last expedition. He, along with his plain-looking daughter, Aileen, and her questionable fiance , Erik, have found the ancient workshop of the sorcerer Krola. There they discover seeds that come with a warning: “The evil that brings these seeds to life shall also be their destroyer.” Erik drops the seeds and Frobisher admonishes him as he picks them up.
Eric discovers he has one of the seeds on his shirt. It becomes hot like cinder and grows into a monster. Frobisher and his daughter see the thing and follow it in the night. It is very hungry and eats everything it can find. Later it shrinks in size. They do not see Erik, who takes the small creature and hides it.
Erik returns to camp after the creature eats Aileen’s bulldog, Churchill. Erik has tired of the Frobishers and tells them so. He leaves. Sir Geoffrey follows. He explains to Erik that the thing must be destroyed because it is a Symbion, a thing that eats and eats but eventually dies. Erik refuses. He wants to become rich from the discovery. He cares nothing for Frobisher’s science. Erik tries to push the old man into the plant to be devoured. He misses and falls in Frobisher’s place. The monster eats him then dies. The creature was destroyed by the evil that spawned it.
Conclusion
The 1970s saw a loosening of the Comics’ Code rules that resulted in a renaissance of Horror comic titles. Gold Key was no different from others like DC Comics, Marvel and my favorite, Charlton. These stories have more of an edge than the ones from the 1960s. Perhaps not quite as gruesome as some of the 1950s titles, we still get some actual death and violence. Most of the tropes are familiar as well, with bad guys getting their comeuppance, families being restored and the ever-present philosophy: there are some things Humankind was not meant to know….
